Project HEADWAY
Webinar
It’s All Strategy… Always
Mark Mullaly, Ph.D., PMP
mark.mullaly@interthink.ca
@markmullaly
We will be starting at 3:00 PM EST
Mark Mullaly is the host for
today’s webinar. Mark is a
management consultant with
more than 25 years of
project management
experience.
He brings a wealth of
experience in managing
projects in a broad array of
sectors and industries.
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Webinar Objectives

• Understand The Traditional Views Of Strategy

• Explore How Projects And Strategy Relate

• Consider Where And How Projects And Strategy

Overlap

• Make Sense Of How Projects Can—and Should—

Support The Realization Of Strategy

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Webinar Process – Things to Know

Ø This Is Cisco WebEx Presentation

• PowerPoint
• Computer-based audio stream
Ø Problems or Help?
• Contact Heather using the Q&A box
Ø Questions?
• Submit a question in the Q&A box
• Questions will be answered during the Q&A session
• We may not be able to answer all questions
Ø This Presentation Will Be Recorded for Future Reference
Ø PDUs

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Agenda

• Introduction
• Defining Our Terms
• Traditional Views Of Strategy
• The Challenges Of Mixing Strategy And Projects
• Making It All About Strategy
• Question & Answer Session

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Defining Our Terms

Strategy & Execution

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Defining ‘Strategy'

• 'Strategy' Means:
• The science and art of employing the political, economic,
psychological, and military forces of a nation or group of nations to
afford the maximum support to adopted policies in peace or war
• The science and art of military command exercised to meet the enemy
in combat under advantageous conditions
• A variety of or instance of the use of strategy

• A careful plan or method : a clever stratagem

• The art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal

• An adaptation or complex of adaptations (as of behavior, metabolism,

or structure) that serves or appears to serve an important function in
achieving evolutionary success

• Source: merriam-webster.com
• Definition taken on 14 July 2019

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Defining ‘Execution'

• ’Execution' Means:
• The act or process of executing: performance
• To carry out fully
• To what is provided or required by
• To make or produce, especially by carrying out a design
• A putting to death especially as a legal penalty
• The process of enforcing a legal judgment (as against a
debtor)
• Also : a judicial writ directing such enforcement
• The act or mode or result of performance

• Source: merriam-webster.com
• Definition taken on 14 July 2019
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Do We Dare Ask About “Strategy Execution?”

• This Is Where It Starts To Get Blurry

• Two Dominant Perspectives Exist

• Strategy execution as a process

• ”A systematic way of exposing reality and acting on it.”
• This lies in three core processes
• People
• Strategy
• Operations

• Strategy execution as a system

• Integrated management system to deliver value
• Identified as having six stages:
• Develop the strategy
• Plan the strategy
• Align the organization
• Plan operations
• Monitor and learn
• Test and adapt
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So What Is This Really Saying?

• Traditionally, The Ideas Have Separate And Distinct

Dimensions
• Strategy
• The devising of a plan
• Figuring out what we are going to do to be successful
• Execution
• The realization of a plan
• Doing the work necessary to realize success

• But We’re Overlapping And Blurring Those

Boundaries
• Execution is embracing the creation as well as the doing
• Strategy is presuming the overall scope of organizational
work

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What Does The PMBOK Have To Say?

• All Projects Are Presumed To Derive From Strategy

• The principle of strategic alignment is deemed essential and given

• Overall Success Is Dependent On Strategy

• Criteria are linked to strategic objectives
• Delivering on organizational strategy, objectives and goals is
fundamental

• Most Other References To Strategy Are Synonymous With

Planning
• Stakeholder engagement strategy
• Communications strategy
• Procurement strategy
• Risk management strategy

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Traditional Views Of Strategy

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Need For Alignment

• Strategic Alignment Is Presumed To Be

Fundamental
• Especially where the PMBOK is concerned

• Strategy Is The Overall Driver

• Projects Respond To Strategy

• Success Is Perceived As The Degree To Which

Projects Deliver On Strategic Priorities
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Domain Of Strategy

• Strategy Is About Setting Direction

• High Level Principles Include:

• It is high level
• It is set by senior management
• It is well-defined and relatively static
• It sets the direction the organization as a whole will follow
• It is adhered to closely and responded to directly

• Strategy Establishes Overarching Intent

• The organization subsequently follows through in
delivering
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Domain Of Projects

• Projects Are About Delivering Strategy

• All projects should be aligned with strategic direction
• As should portfolios and programs

• High Level Principles Include:

• Strategy determines what projects should be done
• Project outcomes and objectives are shaped by strategy
• Scope and deliverables respond to strategy needs
• Project success is measurable by strategy attainment

• Projects Are What Gets Actually Gets Done

• But the strategic direction frames which projects get done,
and what they should deliver
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The (Perceived) Gap Between Them

• Strategy And Projects Live In Separate Domains

• They are though of differently
• They are approached differently
• Different people are responsible for each dimension

• Strategy Sets Direction

• And projects are presumed to follow

• Projects Are How Change Gets Delivered

• And alignment is presumed to exist

• There Are Very Few Controls To Make Sure This Happens

• Both perspectives are presumed to be true
• The overlap is seldom considered or focussed on

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The Challenges Of Mixing Strategy & Projects

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Organizations Don’t Do A Great Job Of Strategy

• Strategy Is Theoretically Well Defined

• And strategic planning is theoretically well embraced

• Few Organizations Do Strategic Plans Well

• Many plans aren’t actually strategic
• Plans frequently don’t consider what needs to change
• Plans blur the boundaries between strategic change and
operational consistency
• Priorities are a subset of what actually matters

• How To Deliver On Strategy Isn’t Clear

• Expectations are presumed to be understood
• Actual follow-through is not explicitly defined
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Organizations Don’t Do A Great Job Of Projects

• Projects Routinely Fail

• More than 75% of projects continue to fail to realize objectives
• Close to a third of projects still fail outright

• When Projects Do Deliver, It Is Often Less Than What Was

Expected
• Scope is compromised and expectations are not delivered on
• Change management and transition is sub-optimized or ignored
• Ensuring the results are used for their intended purpose does not
occur
• Deferred functionality and work does not get followed up on later

• Strategic Intent Ultimately Gets Ignored

• Why we were doing the project
• What needs to be delivered for the strategic results to be realized
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Our Desire To Formalize Gets In The Way

• We Try To Clearly Delineate What Constitutes Strategy And

Projects

• Delineation Requires Drawing Boxes And Lines

• Clarification of process
• Clarification of roles
• Who is responsible for doing what
• Where that responsibility stops and handover occurs

• The Result Is An Attempt To Isolate And Separate

• Strategy is the product of executives and governance teams
• Projects are the responsibility of project managers and project
teams

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What We Do Gets In The Way More

• Our Expectations May Be Clear On Paper

• What we do in reality is often different

• On-The-Ground Behaviours Do Not Align With Expectations

• Sponsors abdicate their day-to-day responsibility or are AWOL
entirely
• Stakeholders emphasize operational priorities over project needs
• Project managers have their attention split by multiple demands
• Project team members suffer the most tension of all

• The Consequence Is That Priorities Aren’t Attended To

• We don’t focus on the priorities that strategy expects us to
• Projects get compromised in order to get to done
• What is most needed is often not what is delivered

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We Seldom Drive From Strategy

• The Expectation Is That Strategy Drives Projects

• The define priorities and required outcomes
• Those translate into the work required to deliver those outcomes
• Projects derive directly from strategic need

• We Often Justify Projects In Reverse

• Strategy sets a theoretical (and often very high-level and all-
encompassing) direction
• Managers have projects that they want to get done
• “Strategic alignment” is about rationalizing how a chosen project
supports an arbitrary strategy

• The Consequence Is Focus On The Projects That Are

Wanted
• Not what is required to deliver on the defined priorities
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In All Instances, There Is A Pretty Big Gap

• Strategy And Projects Exist As Separate Domains

• They Acknowledge Each Other

• They are aware the other exists
• They theoretically connect to and support each other

• They Often Don’t Address Each Other

• There isn’t a holistic integration of strategy and projects
• Integration between them is presumed to occur, but not actually
guided
• The consequence is often a separation of intent from action
• With a follow up consequence of action losing sight of the intent

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Making It All About Strategy

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Are Strategy & Execution The Same?

• It’s An Argument That Has Been Made A Few Times

• The Source Of This Argument Is The Blurring Of Lines

And Definitions
• Strategy attempting to extend into execution
• Execution redefining itself as encompassing all of strategy

• The Counter Argument Is That Strategy And

Execution Are In Fact One
• They are inseparable
• Talking about them separately therefore is illogical
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Where I Agree With The Perspective

• Strategy And Execution Are Intricately Related

• They are not and cannot be divorced from each other
without dire consequences
• Doing one without the other—and without alignment with
the other—is pointless

• Roger Martin Describes Strategy As A “Cascade Of

Decisions”
• Which makes it difficult to draw a line where strategy stops
and execution starts
• Decisions of strategy will extend to the front line

• There Is A Continuum Between Them

• But there are still distinctions to be made
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Where I Disagree With The Perspective

• There Is Still A Framing Of Broad Corporate Strategy

• Where we are trying to go
• What success looks like in going there

• There Are Also Projects

• And they are the essence of how change is managed—and
strategy is realized

• Projects Are By Their Nature Strategic

• They also have boundaries—by design
• They are discrete choices that are made in getting strategy
to happen

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They Are Separate—And They Are Not
• The Creation Of Distinctions Is Driven By Several Factors
• Clarity of meaning
• Clarity of approach
• Clarity of roles, responsibilities and accountabilities

• Strategy Formulation Is Its Own Unique Process

• Exploring who an organization serves, how it does that uniquely and well and
what success looks like

• Delivering The Changes Required To Deliver That Strategy Is Also

Unique
• Defining the outcomes, solutions and scope that provides meaningful results
• Organizing the work necessary to produce those results

• They Are Part Of A Strategic Continuum

• How each are done and by who is different
• They serve a larger purpose together—and fail when separate

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Strategy Needs To Keep Projects Close

• Strategy Needs To Stay Close To The Projects It Creates

• Firstly, Strategy Needs To Be the Source Of Those Projects

• The emphasis needs to be “Because of this strategy, these are the
projects that we need to do.”
• This is very different from “Because of this strategy, this is how I
rationalize the project I want to do anyway.”

• Strategy Needs To Continue To Actively Monitor And Shape

The Projects That Support It
• Ensuring delivery of outcomes
• Evolving expectations and requirements
• Managing, supporting and realizing the organizational change

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Projects Need To Keep Strategy Close

• There Is A Tendency To Keep Projects Self-Contained

• We try to clearly define scope of what is in, and keep all other
considerations out
• We also do this for reasons of self-preservation

• Traditional Views Of Project Management Support This

• The presumption was that you started with an objective
• The source of that objective was never questioned

• While Projects Are Predicated On A Clear Scope, Projects

Also Need To Stay Close To The Strategy They Serve
• It drives the reason for the project existing
• It will evolve and change with new learnings and changing
expectations
• The project will also need to adapt accordingly
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As One Changes, So Must The Other

• Strategy Is Dynamic
• The organization will learn new things
• It will adapt to what is working and what is not
• New opportunities will emerge that the organization chooses to take
advantage of

• Projects Are Dynamic (On Their Own)

• They change based on evolving change (we call that scope change)
• They also make compromises and shift expectations to get to done
(we call that shifting the goal posts)

• Any Change Needs To Be Responsive To The Strategy

• Strategy will change expectations of the project
• Project changes cannot (or should not) sub-optimize or derail
attainability of strategy

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That Means Embracing Change Differently

• Projects Aren’t Fixed, Immovable Or Managed In Isolation

• They exist because the organization needs them

• Change Should Be Welcomed And Embraced

• Because organizational expectations evolve
• Because new expectations emerge
• Because new ways of working and realizing outcomes are
identified

• In The Most Extreme Circumstances, Projects May Be

Drastically Altered—Or Cancelled Outright
• And that is entirely appropriate and necessary
• It is not a sign of failure—it is a sign that strategy is doing what it
is supposed to do
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In Conclusion…

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In Conclusion…
• Historically, Organizations Have Struggled With Implementing Strategy
• Partly that is a challenge of developing good strategy
• That is also a challenge of executing on strategy well
• Arguments Have Been Made That Strategy And Execution Are The Same
• This is a product of blurring the lines between the two
• Although there are still useful distinctions to be made
• Strategy Clarifies Direction
• It makes deliberate and exclusionary choices
• It defines one path over another, and defines what success looks like in following
that path
• Projects Are The Means By Which Change Is Realized
• Projects should be responsive to strategy
• They also need to stay aware of and aligned to strategy—particularly as things
change
• Strategy And Projects Exist—And Must Exist—In A Continuum
• They are separate, but they are also fundamentally intertwined
• We need to be open to radical changes to projects as strategy changes
• Making changes is not a sign of failure
• When done for the right reasons, significant change or even outright cancellation
can be the absolutely correct course of action
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Q&A

It’s All About Strategy… Always

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Questions?

• Quick Review: Process to Pose a Question

• Questions?

Mark E. Mullaly, PMP

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Mark Your Calendars!

Project HEADWAY

Knowing What To Focus On

Thursday, 15 August 2019

@ 3:00 PM EST

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 The End
Questions for the Presenter?
Mark Mullaly
mark.mullaly@interthink.ca
@markmullaly
Interested in project HEADWAY?
http://projectmanagement.com/membership
Mark Mullaly is the host for
today’s webinar. Mark is a
management consultant with
more than 25 years of
project management
experience.
He brings a wealth of
experience in managing
projects in a broad array of
sectors and industries.
41